UW-La Crosse junior has college in the bag

University of Wisconsin-La Crosse junior Blake Westling recently used skills that helped him pay for college to earn second place in an unusual national competition.

Westling was named the second best grocery bagger in the nation during the National Grocers Association's 26th Best Bagger Championship in Las Vegas. He plans to put his second prize of $5,000 toward a Roth IRA and next year’s college tuition. He's majoring in biology, with a minor in chemistry, and plans to attend medical school.

Westling practiced all fall semester in 105-degree heat and blindfolded, according to a news release from UW-La Crosse.

He bagged 31 items in 44 seconds in the Las Vegas competition. He missed first place by 1.3 points because a glass bottle he bagged was not completely surrounded on all four sides by something else. That’s considered part of the “bagging technique.” Other skills judges measured included speed, weight distribution among the bags and the bagger’s style, attitude and appearance.

Westling drew from his five years of experience bagging groceries at Byerly’s in Eagan, Minn. He started there in high school and continues to work at the supermarket during summer and winter breaks from college.

Westling started practicing in September with a trainer from Byerly’s via Skype from his La Crosse apartment. The two used the blindfold to help Westling master the “weight distribution” category, where he needed to learn not to be deceived by a grocery item’s heavy appearance. The extreme heat was meant to simulate the nerves he might feel on competition day.

The stakes were high. If he had won first place, Westling would have earned $10,000 and the opportunity to be on the “Late Show with David Letterman.”

About Karen Herzog

Karen Herzog covers higher education. She also has covered public health and was part of a national award-winning team that took on Milwaukee's infant mortality crisis.